Math for the Fifth Grade

Your child is ready for the fifth grade, and hopefully, so are you! It’s easy to become overwhelmed with homeschooling as your child gets older and the concepts he must learn and the time spent on schoolwork continue to increase. By the fifth grade, he should have all of the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts memorized; without them, he’ll struggle through most of his math lessons. During the fifth grade year, these lessons will probably include:

Reading and writing numbers to ten places

Dividing multi-digit numbers by one-digit numbers

Dividing by two-digit numbers

Dividing money amounts

Estimating the answer to a division problem

Solving word problems with division

Solving multi-step word problems

Adding and subtracting fractions with like and unlike denominators

Adding and subtracting mixed numbers

Adding and subtracting decimals

Rounding decimals

Rounding mixed numbers

Determining the prime factors of numbers

Identifying different types of triangles

Identifying the radius, diameter, and circumference of a circle

Writing equations to represent word problems

Comparing and converting metric units of measurement

Comparing and converting English units of measurement.

Finding the area of squares, rectangles, triangles, and parallelograms

If you’re a veteran homeschooler, you’ve probably already found a math curriculum that suits your child. If you’re still looking for a good fit, or if you’re new to homeschooling, there are many different types of curriculum you can try. Some of these programs include:

Math Made Easy Grade 5 Workbook, published by Dorling Kindersley, offers students practice on all the major math concepts for the fifth grade. Special emphasis is given to adding and subtracting fractions and decimals. This workbook is a good choice if you want to supplement another curriculum with additional practice in math.

Math U See Epsilon: Before beginning with Math U See Epsilon, the student should have completed theAlpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta curricula, or have mastered addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The focus of this curriculum is fractions and includes adding and subtracting fractions, equivalent fractions, comparing fractions, multiplying and dividing fractions, reducing fractions, mixed numbers, and area and circumference of a circle.

Saxon Homeschool Math 6/5 is the Saxon math course for fifth graders. The complete kit includes the student textbook, tests, worksheets booklet, and the solutions manual. In the lessons, students will continue to practice the concepts they learned in Math 5/4, as well as learn new concepts appropriate for this grade level.

Shiller Math Kit II is designed for students in grades 4-7. The kit consists of four Scope and Sequence books, the Fractions Concept Index, Lesson Books 4-6, answer keys, diagnostic tests and answers, an audio CD, and manipulatives.

Switched on Schoolhouse 5th Grade Math by Alpha Omega Publications is a curriculum designed for the computer. Lessons for fifth-grade students include concepts such as plane and solid shapes, area, perimeter, fractions, decimals, and probabilities.

The Singapore Math Primary Mathematics 5A and 5B set for homeschoolers includes two student workbooks and two textbooks, all of which can be purchased separately. Also available is a home educator’s guide.

As you search through the curriculum, don’t forget the books that help make math both practical and fun. Some of these books include:

Family Math by Jean Kerr Stanmark, Virginia Thompson, and Ruth Cossey contains more than 100 math activities you can do with your children. Using simple objects found around the home, such as playing cards, buttons, beans, coins, blocks, and string, parents and children work to solve problems together. Concepts covered include numbers, estimation, probability, statistics, measurement, using calculators, and more.

The Math Chef: Over 60 Math Activities and Recipes for Kids by Joan D’Amico demonstrates for children what every cook knows: math and cooking go together! The activities in this book cover concepts such as multiplication and division, percents, fractions, measurement, and more.

Whatever method of teaching math you choose, enjoy this fifth grade year with your child. After all, one of the greatest benefits of homeschooling is time spent learning together.